"Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors' meetings around Leveson at the moment.
The paper, which had reported that the secretary, Maria Miller, was submitting expenses for her parents' house in London, said that her aide told reporters: "Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors' meetings around Leveson at the moment.
Special adviser Jo Hindley was unwise enough to tell a reporter from the Daily Telegraph, shortly before it broke the expenses story: "Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors' meetings around Leveson at the moment.
With Blair in particular, you can imagine the case being made for him in editors' meetings: he was a wildly energetic and fearless street reporter who would go anywhere and talk to anybody, and he could phone in his stuff to the desk where soberer heads could tame it.
Those with long memories recall that the discussions that led to the formation of the PCC in the early 1990s included editors' meetings dominated by the likes of Andreas Whittam Smith, then editor of the Independent, while tabloid types hung around the room's fringes grumpily signing up to the modest reforms on offer.
She added: "Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors' meetings around Leveson at the moment.
According to the Telegraph, Miss Hindley told its reporter: "Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors' meetings around Leveson at the moment.
She goes on to say Mrs Miller had been "having quite a lot of editors' meetings around Leveson at the moment", before adding: "So I am just going to flag up that connection for you to think about".
Later, Haaretz posted an article on the unusual editors meeting and the parliamentary discussion.
As the editors' meeting ended, the op-ed editor came out, hobbling.
